Because indie labels are the next evolutionary step up from self-publishing, most hip indie label rosters include the owners' band(s). Broadly speaking, these bands are seldom responsible for the most innovative or popular music on the label. At best, they're "underappreciated"; at worst, they're an industry joke.
Andy Votel is co-owner of the popular Twisted Nerve label -- a duty he shares with top act Badly Drawn Boy. He's a busy man: a DJ, producer, label honcho, filmmaker and graphic designer as well as a musician. It's not unusual for a multi-talented individual to want to prove himself in yet another artistic capacity, although such efforts often wind up sounding surprisingly unfocused; while they're accustomed to riding herd over other groups, producers-turned-artists rarely realize that they too can benefit from the presence of an in-studio "authority figure" who'll speak out when ideas aren't working. Fortunately, Votel seems to have dodged the self-indulgence bullet. While it may not make your jaw drop the first time you hear it, Styles of the Unexpected is interesting, accomplished and sophisticated, and its modest ideas work well.
Perhaps wisely, Votel's first "run" isn't a marathon. Styles... clocks in at a mere thirty minutes, shared among seven tracks. The music, much of it downtempo stuff, avoids the bland, crushing boredom that kills a majority of contemporary trip-hop; Votel's isn't aiming for Massive Attack-style moodiness, but for a luxurious, cinematic blend of pop and jazz, flavored with hip-hop and electronic elements. He manages this nicely on the opening track, "Urbanite Rocks", building a brooding bass line and inquisitive rhythm into a nicely-paced midtempo shuffle decorated with peeks and pokes from analog keys. "Girl On A GoPed" one-ups this nicely with the addition of Jane Weaver on vocals, resulting in a sultrier, more mature (and musically interesting) take on the Saint Etienne formula. Incongruity is added -- with admirable restraint -- by a very nasal-sounding analog synth.
"Return of the Spooky Driver" takes the mood even higher. It begins with the juxtaposition of a minor-key piano theme and some bubbly, blip-bloopy electronic effects. These are interrupted by an urgent, thoroughly catchy post-punk/proto-Goth guitar line, which vanishes as abruptly as it appears. This formula repeats three times, with the final go-round expanding the guitar piece and backing it up with some suitably probing keyboards. It's mysterious and quite engrossing.
The tracks that follow offer further intrigue: pleasing textural interaction, compelling thematic elements and unexpected melodic choices. "Diode" and "Doe-Eyed" provide electronic and organic variations on a low-key theme, their differences as much a matter of mood as instrumentation. The disc's final song (and its other vocal track), "RiderBrow", seems from Lee Gordon's somnolent vocals to be moving toward a fizzle-out instead of a big finish, but the song surprises with a stirring final movement driven by percussion and strings.
The danger here is simple: the line between introspective and dull, or between intricate and annoyingly fiddly, is entirely subjective. While I found Styles... to have a suitable balance of ideas and time, other listeners -- particularly those of you with a distaste for crossed genres -- may find its shifting moods irritating.
Votel's music is probably too subtle to attract even the comparatively modest attention earned by Badly Drawn Boy's Damon Gough, but it definitely deserves to be heard. Perhaps my expectations were low, but Styles of the Unexpected really took me by surprise.
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